The Hyperion Heterochrome
by Vathos
Summary: She had survived on Pandora alone for long enough, now she needed a job. And of course, the only one she got involved a certain man with multicolored eyes to be her direct boss. Nothing could go wrong from there, right? Rated Mature for super smut in the future.
1. In Which I Am A Dead Woman

Hyperion was not all that it was cut out to be. Before I had applied I had no idea what I was getting into. All was hope, and hope was a difficult conviction at the time. As a girl barely out of her 20's who's lived on the shitty-ass planet of Pandora her whole life, the great company of Hyperion seemed like a Godsend. One application and boom: local apartments, a stable job, food, and hell, even people who weren't psychotic bandits always chasing after you with fire guns and grenades. It was perfect.

Well, that was before I knew how "perfect" Hyperion was.

Now don't get me wrong, the company itself was better than I make it out to be. It gives jobs to people in need, it produces tech to maintain order on the chaos of Pandora, and it even provides special care to death-deserving native creatures roaming their respected regions. Despite a certain psychotic CEO, yup, Hyperion was great.

That was until, my application was accepted.

Here's the down low: Pandora is filled with tech. Old, new, current, and a whole lot of scrap that almost anybody can get their hands on. And if you've lived on Pandora long enough, then you know the dire need one has on collecting the tech and scrap to protect yourself from the said shitty-ass creatures from before. Also bandits, don't forget the shitty-ass bandits. There was no escaping it. Either you were an engineer who knew their way around an unstable power core or a broken down buggy or you were dead. Seriously, no tech knowledge, no life.

Which brings it back to me. Hello, my name is Ellis, and at that point in my life I was a 25 year old resident of the shitty planet of Pandora, with the skills to jack up a pistol and rewire a berserk EXP loader to pick flowers instead of explode. After a very long time of running around Pandora looking for a place to rest my head for one full fucking night, I had finally found asylum at Hyperion. With what you may ask? What job had I applied for that had been pulled through and now had me with my own safe apartment near the station?

Well it should be obvious, I was the head engineer. What shouldn't be obvious, however, was the part of my job that required me to receive orders directly from the man above. That's right, my boss was Hyperion CEO Heterochromic Handsome-fucking-Jack.

Why am I so angry? Because that was not what I freaking asked for. I had already spent the last 25 years of my life running _away_ from psychos, I didn't settle down there to start _working_ for one. Let alone their freaking king. And no, I am not overreacting. Handsome Jack was quite literally the worst of them all.

For example, it is on record that every single head engineer that had worked directly under him had died under the pretense of "mysterious circumstances." And any fool working in or out of Hyperion knew that Jack fucking killed them. The life-span of their jobs? Two. Weeks. I was so a dead woman.

That was definitely not what I signed up for. No, I signed up for novice engineer working in the tech labs as the lowest possible part of the company. I wanted to work but I wanted to stay hidden. Any job would have given me the benefits I needed but I needed to keep the attention away from myself because I knew that the smaller I was, the less attention Jack or anybody else at the company would give me. Unfortunately, I was deemed too good to be given novice and instead was given the highest authority in engineering. Right. Under. Fucking. Handsome. Jack.

But in retrospect I probably shouldn't have put my early tech miracles of the girl surviving chaotic Pandora onto my application. It could've made due without a few triple-element-packed weapons, but hey, what's a girl without a few brags?

But there I was, dressed in my finest scrapped cargo pants, charcoaled white tank shirt, ruined leather gloves and metal-lined boots, making my way down a corridor to some advanced elevator that lead up to Handsome Jack's office at the top of the station for my evaluation. As my head scrambled for things to say that wouldn't tick him off and have him pointing his gun at my face, it was also writing a eulogy in preparation that he did pull the trigger.

I stepped into the elevator, facing several pale-faced, paper-clutching cubical workers pressed against the back who'd already recognized my face and were sending prayers in my direction. I chose to ignore them. I had already lived a life of pity for way too long to really give a damn about anybody else's mental mercy anymore. Pressing a metal finger against the top button I stepped back into the space they had created for me and stared in indignation at the doors that closed, encasing me with the silent weirdos. Oh, and did I mention I had a metal arm? Long story.

By the time I reach the top of the station, I was alone in the elevator. And thankfully too. I had already received way too many bleary eyes and puckered lips to have to deal with them right before I stepped into my demise known as the lasted engineer shot in the head by notorious Handsome Jack. As I made my way down I came face to face with his secretary, some petite blonde girl who looked too terrified to be working such a close-call job with Jack. If I wasn't already fearing for my own life I would have felt bad for her.

The girl exchanged no words with me, just a weary finger pointing to Handsome Jack's doors before she disappeared into the closing doors of the elevator. Jealously was far too mild to call me at that moment.

Before I stepped into certain doom, I stopped myself short in front of the office doors. I did remember what Handsome Jack looked like, right? Searching my head told me maybe. Sure, Jack had his face on plenty of advertisements scattered and scrapped throughout Pandora, but I had never actually paid any mind to them. I had far too much to deal with than to remember some dude's face, but there had to be something in my memory banks that could help. With careful reconstruction, all I could piece together was a long nose, intense eyebrows and large, heterochromic eyes. Did he actually live up to his given namesake? Was he really Handsome or was that just some title he gave to himself as a first impression before people actually met him?

 _Only one way to find out._

Lifting my metal army, heavy with the weight of my fears, my fingers curled into a fist and I planted three, short knocks onto the door. There was a silent pregnant air that followed and I began to mildly sweat under my shirt. I never assumed to know the guy but why the fuck was he making it difficult to wonder what was going to happen next.

I stood in front of the door for what seemed like freaking forever. God it sucked.

"So, pumpkin, you gonna walk in or are you just gonna stand there like an idiot?"

I nearly flipped my shit as the muffled voice came from the other side of the doors. What a guy to make a person wait in silence for forever before deciding to scare them half to death. A deep breath followed the terrified jump in my heart and I finally grabbed the door to open it. A single swing and I was standing at the threshold of the office of one, Handsome Jack, languidly stretched in his chair, feet propped up against his desk and a gun in the process of being cleaned with a napkin held loosely in his hands. He was whistling now, paying almost no mind to my presence as I very carefully made my way to the front of the room. Behind him was an enormous glass window that overlooked the planet. It was almost like some fancy-ass painting. He was practically glowing with the moon behind him.

But boy, I had to admit, he sure was Handsome. Well, as handsome as any manipulating, psychotic, egotistical guy can be.

I stood awkwardly in front of Jack's desk, my metal arm rubbing my fingers together to create a small grinding noise, a habit I had in times of my unstable nerves, while my human arm stayed clenched at my side. The silence was absolutely unbearable, even more so that it seemed Jack was purposefully trying to make me uncomfortable. What a hairy ass.

"You're Ellis, right?" Jack finally spoke, still not lifting his eyes as he inspected his gun. I stared at him, hoping my terror wasn't showing so obviously on my face.

"Mhm."

A moment passed before Jack's eyes snapped up to meet mine and he slid his legs off the table. "Holy shit, you're a girl?" He exclaimed suddenly.

I took a step back at his outburst, my shoulders scrunching together in surprise. Jack just stared at me, a half-open smile curling to his face as if it were some delightful surprise that his new head engineer was a woman.

"Did—Did, uh, you think I was a guy?" I asked carefully, my face making some strange half-concerned, half-grimaced look.

Jack barked a laughed, one hand sheathing his gun while the other loudly slapped his desk once. "With a name like Ellis I sure as hell did. But damn, I wasn't expecting a chick at all. You don't find a lot of girls working in the engineering business."

I licked my dry lips, watching Jack's eyes flicker down momentarily as I did so. By now the stately man had stood up straight, his arms crossed, his face tilted upwards, hips jutted slightly forward. How old was he anyways? His upright position hinted 20 but his face said 40.

"That's good to, uh, hear, I guess." I finally said, trying hard not to bite the inside of my cheek. He stared me down with his discolored eyes, a hand releasing from the cross of his arms to curve around his jaw, probing me with his mind. A slight tip at the corner of his mouth said that he liked what he saw, but somehow that didn't make me feel better.

"Sure is, cupcake. Means that it'll be a whole lot more pleasant around here than when the last ugly bastard who had to work for me was around. Seriously, did you ever meet the guy? Bald and fat as all hell." The tall man said with a comical shudder. He let his arms uncross and one hooked its thumb on his belt. He took a couple of strides to step around his desk before he stood in front of me, towering above me.

I liked to consider myself a regal form, tall, broad and strong. Compared to Jack, however, I looked like the psychotic midgets of the bandits back on Pandora. He stood at least a head taller than I, his shoulders broad, his muscles actually bulging slightly through his clothing. For a second I had to fight a mental image about what his body looked under all that clothing. A mental shudder crossed my mind. That had to violate some sort of code, didn't it?

"Evaluation." I croaked, clearing my throat before I spoke.

Jack cocked an eye at me, his head tilting slightly. "What?"

"Evaluation, um, sir." I repeated, trying a more formal tone to establish that I was being respectful. "That's why I'm up here. You're supposed to evaluate me before I start working for you."

Handsome Jack's eyes lit up with a wide smile. "No shit, I forgot!" He said with another laugh, his hands swinging and clamping onto my arms. Again I had that estranged look on my face as I stared up at him, his grip on my arms scrunching my shoulder and chest together. He squeezed a little, before pulling outwards, my arms lifting to form my body into a large T. He stepped back, admiring his work, his hand again encasing the edge of his jaw and chin, taking a few strides around me to probe me with his eyes.

"Mhm, I like what I see, yes." He said after about a minute of visual analyzing. "Nice muscles, long legs, small waist, cute butt, and that rack! Damn girl."

"Um, sir, I don't think that's what an evaluation means." I said, mentally smacking myself after. This was Handsome fucking Jack. He could do what he wanted, however he wanted, regardless if he was wrong or not. And for some reason, in that moment I had forgot that and probably just lost the lease to my life in ten fucking words.

"What—what was that?" Jack said, suddenly by my face, a hand cupping his ear in a mock representation of a man hard of hearing. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear you there. But it sounded something like you were telling me that I was doing something wrong."

His voice had reached a threatening level of passive-aggressiveness, and I had to shut my eyes to hide from it. As soon as I did, however, his hand reached out to snatch my chin, forcing my face towards his. " _Look at me_." He seethed between his teeth, forcing me to open my eyes and stare into the angry green and blue orbs on his face. "I am Handsome fucking Jack, I can do very well what I please. I don't need some lowlife like you telling me that I'm doing something wrong."

A part of me felt like tearing up but another part defied my pressing emotions. Sure this guy terrified me but I was sure as hell not going to let him get to me. Not like this.

"Now, I am going to let go of your face and continue my evaluation, and when I'm done, you are going to say 'Thank you sir, I look forward to working with you as your head engineer' with that sexy little voice of yours and step out of this office eager to have your job, _am I clear_?"

A hairy fucking ass indeed.

"Yes."

"Yes, _what_."

"Yes, sir."

"There we go." With a yank, his hands fell from my face. His voice returned to its normal flirty pitch, and he stood up to adjust his vest. "Now was that so hard princess?" He asked rhetorically, continuing his analyzation.

I stood as still as I could, closing my eyes to imagine that I wasn't being ogled at by the notorious Handsome Jack. It felt like a long time that I stayed still, reeling back from Jack's earlier outburst, waiting for him to finish so I could finally leave and go home and drink it off. I had been saving some alcohol I had snatched from a camp of bandits a few weeks ago and this seemed like the perfect time to crack it open and consume all of it.

"You know, pumpkin, as much as I like seeing you standing there, baring yourself to me like some sort of sacrifice, I gotta get back to work. So, do yourself a favor and go home to pleasure yourself while imagining getting it on with me, would you?"

I could feel a fire rising behind the skin of my face, and opened my eyes to see Jack's smug smile as he sat in his chair, arms propped up on his desk. I let my arms snap back to my sides, turning away to hurry quickly out of the office. I just couldn't understand why I let the bastard get to me so much.

"Oh, but Ellis, aren't you forgetting something?"

His voice made me stop in my tracks, just short of the door, and my head dropped to stare at the ground. God I hated him. "Thank you sir—"I began, but choked on my words.

"Go on, finish your sentence."

 _Deep breath._ "Thank you sir, I look forward to working with you as your head engineer." _And killing you whatever chance I get._

"Good. Now get out, I have more important shit to deal with."

I was gone before he even finished his sentence. To hell if it was rude of me, I just had to get out of there. Who the fuck did he think he was, being such an ass back there? So profane and disgusting, it made me sick.

I guess I shouldn't have expected any less from Handsome Jack. This was the card the universe dealt me, so I had to work with it. Even if it meant that I was going to put my life on the line every day until I had no life to deal anymore.

I was so a dead woman.


	2. In Which Beer Gets The Better Of Me

The humming felt nice.

It was almost like a distraction, but it was more the result of my drunken state, which was a distraction in itself.

The alcohol I had stashed had proved to be a lot stronger than I thought. Not that I minded really. After my evaluation with Handsome Jack I all but fled the station and came to my apartment, immediately retrieving my stash and practically downing a whole bottle in one go. I needed this. It was my only escape now that I had to work for the hairy ass, so it probably didn't matter that I was absolutely sloshed, lying upside down on my couch, humming to some random beatboxing song that was playing on the radio.

Well, it only mattered so long as I didn't come into any human interaction until I woke up the next morning with a splitting headache and a dire need to spill the contents of my dinner into the toilet two rooms over. As long as I didn't talk to anybody and stayed shut in my apartment for the next few hours, I would spare myself any violence or embarrassment until at least the morning. It probably didn't matter anyways, I had yet to actually have any friends. All my other friends had been short-term during my time as a survivor on Pandora, either killed by bandits or eaten alive by bullymongs.

 _I don't need any friends anyways,_ I thought to myself, shutting my eyes and imagining that I was lying on a cloud, free from any troubles. _Probably shouldn't have friends, either. It wouldn't be fair to them to get all buddy-buddy with such an awesome person like me before finding out I was dead two weeks into the friendship cuz I said something stupid to Jack._

A hand came to smack against my face and I released a loud, annoyed groan. Right. I had forgotten about Jack in the last couple of hours, but there I was, re-inviting him back into my head because I seemed to like torturing myself. Stupid fucking heterochromic Handsome Jack. My head replayed our earlier conversation, his remark about the insinuated masturbation kept pestering me that night. What a gross asshole.

Still, as much as I absolutely hated to admit it, there was a slight turn on I got with his vulgarity. I didn't know how to explain it, and hell I was ashamed as fuck to admit it, but something in the way he spoke to me, the way he told me to pleasure myself to the thought of sexual intercourse with him, actually sparked something inside me. After I left I got all hot and bothered, fighting off some racy mental images until I got home and attempted to forget it all by drinking alcohol.

But, now that I thought about it, being drunk did not help me at all. With my loose mind and cushioned judgment, there were few restriction I had to the things I would do. And with my thoughts on the asshole Jack and his command, there was almost nothing stopping me from doing as he told.

I closed my eyes again, only the smallest part of me telling me that what I was doing was wrong, but the overwhelming nature of my arousal had blew out that light almost immediately. God, it had been so long since I ever had the chance to release the stress from my body, whether by myself or with someone else, and right now I needed to do something about it. It was all thanks to Jack that my thoughts had turned to this. If it wasn't for his ways of being a vulgar asshole and a sexy as fuck one at that, then I wouldn't be subjecting myself to such an act, not in this time, not in this situation.

I imagined more than I knew I should have. There were clothes being shed, dirty words exchanged, grunts and moans. There was screaming, and hair pulling, and passionate kissing and god, the room was too hot. Thrusting, panting, sweat and— ringing? Yeah, ringing.

What the hell was ringing?

I sat up from the couch, my mind returning to the hardness of reality. Okay, wrong term to use, but with a swift scan of the room I realized my comm was the source of the sound. Quickly I got up, stumbling only slightly as I readjusted my clothing and my face, wondering who the hell it was that was calling so freaking late in the afternoon.

Picking up my comm from the table I turned it on, and when the call was answered, an image of Handsome Jack came to my view. If I had been sober, I would have changed my expression and my demeanor, probably into someone freaking out as to why her boss was calling so late at night. In my drunken stupor, however, I sat and stared at the screen in a half-bored, half-slightly-still-aroused expression. The image of Jack was chuckling at me.

"Hullo?"

"There she is," He exclaimed, moving to taking a bite out of something in his hand. "Cupcake, I was wondering when you would answer, I was getting a little worried there. Did I wake you?"

I stared at the screen with half-lidded eyes. My skin still felt flushed and I know my hair was a mess, so I probably looked awful. I shrugged, "Not really. But it's an odd time to… call."

Jack shrugged his own in response, not noticing the slight slur in my voice. "Eh, what can I tell ya. I was bored and decided I wanted to see what me new engineer was up to. We _are_ going to be working pretty closely in the coming weeks, so I thought 'why not start chatting things up now'?"

I closed my eyes for a second, when I reopened them Jack was stuffing more of whatever was in his hand into his mouth. "Okay— hiccup— then."

Jack stalled for a moment as he stared at me through the comm screen. For a moment he looked thoughtful, taking into the account my cushioned voice and sudden hiccup. "Why Ms. Ellis are you—are you drunk?" His voice had taken a pitch of amused disbelief, and his mouth cracked halfway into some sort of entertained smile. "Oh my god, you are! That's hilarious!"

Jack's voice erupted into a fit of laughter, practically wheezing as he slapped his knee and guffawed through the screen. I rolled my eyes. God, drama queen did no justice to his type of behavior.

"So what if I'm a little drunk, I'm allowed t'be a li'l drunk." I said, mentally hitting myself but at the same time not really caring for sounding so stupid in front of Jack.

"No, there's nothing wrong with that it's just," Jack had to stop for a moment to squeeze out another laugh, "—it's just so freaking funny, I did not expect something like that," he wiped a tear from his eye. I couldn't tell if it was real or not. "…from you, Ellis."

I rolled my eyes again. "Oh, you don' expect something like that, but you expect something like me masturbating to the thought of having sex with you, 'uh?" I waved a hand drunkenly in exasperation to him, and Jack watched me as if I was the funniest thing alive.

"Well if you're drunk then who's to say you wouldn't do that either?" He said, with that shit-eating grin of his. There was a moment of silence between us that had went by too fast.

I was suddenly aware of the blush that crept back to my face, remembering how messy and flushed I looked from earlier. In a last ditch attempt I brought a hand up to smooth down my hair, avoiding Jack's gaze through the comm. Even from the corner of my eye I could his eyes starting to bulge slightly.

"Oh my god, you didn't." He sounded so disbelieving. "..Oh my god you did!"

Handsome Jack threw an accusatory finger at me, his eyes and face wide open in exclaimed hilarity. "Holy shit, Ellie! You totally fantasized having sex with me!"

I refused to look him in his ever surprised eyes. God, he didn't have to be such a freaking asshole about it.

"Okay, okay, okay, I won't hold it against you, I know nobody can withstand my charm, but in all seriousness," He calmed slightly, his face falling a little as set his hands in front of him. "Was I any good?"

"Oh god…" I whispered, smacking my face into my hand as Jack once again erupted into a fit of guffaws.

"I mean, I mean I knew you were predictable, but not _that_ predictable!" The man with the silver streak in his hair heaved with laughter, his amusement uncontainable and explosive. He held his arms over his stomach, his hands hovering over his sides as he continued to shed light on my embarrassment. I only glared at him through the comm, wishing I was a Siren so I could phase my way into his office and gouge his eyes out with a spoon. Kind of like the way he did in that story he loved and was so proud to share. Maybe that would teach him a few lessons.

But alas, as drunk as I was I could hardly even stand up, so all I could do was fixate my eyes on him and hope the daggers I shot would make any difference.

"Ah, cupcake, you crack me up..." Jack said wistfully, finally calming down and wiping a real tear from his eye as he stared into nothingness above the comm. A part of me hated why he was laughing, but another part was glad that he was in such a light mood. His earlier outburst today had me fearing for the future, but for now it seemed that he was just intent to poke fun at me. And in my eyes, that was a fate far better than death.

"If you're done laughing at me, I'd like to get back to my drinking. If that's not too much to ask of you, _sir_." Again, my rebelliousness made me want to smack myself, but there was a certain feel of smugness to my attitude. So far it was making me feel better and less embarrassed.

Jack rolled his eyes dramatically, his eyes going so far back you'd think he was a blind bastard. "Aw come on. Ellie, baby, we're having fun here, right? I'm having fun, aren't you having fun?"

"Hardly."

He blew something short of a raspberry at me. "You're boring. I came out here to have a good time and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now."

His shift in conviction to his mood almost made me smile, but as soon as it tugged at the corners of my mouth I forced myself to swallow it down. I just couldn't let him influence me, even when all it involved was laughter.

"Sir, I'm having trouble figuring out why you called in the first place. Don't you have someone better to do?"

The second the words left my mouth I instantly regretted it. My drunk self was trying to talk like my sober self, so my some _thing_ had translated into a some _one_. I could see the sly grin growing before it was even there. Jack had that look on his face, the kind with an idea. His expression changed but his smile remained as he brought up and elbow to slide across his desk.

"Kinda don't actually." His voice reaching a certain husky tone. "Currently you're the 'someone better to _do_ '" He drew out my mistake, leaning forward slightly. I could feel my blush creeping up again and fought to keep it down. Damn me and my drunken slurs.

"I—I didn't mean it like that, sir." I quickly stammered, hoping it wasn't too late to fix my mistake even when I knew Jack wasn't the type to shy away such a vulgar topic.

"Sure ya did, pumpkin. Considering you just spent your evening thinking of me," The smile grew slier, "I wouldn't be surprised if you were thinking about the _do_ right now. Particularly with me."

"I—I…" I wasn't sure how to respond, and instead looked away, praying that my goddamn blush wasn't giving me away, if my lack of speech wasn't already doing so.

"Are you always this tongue-tied over comm? It's annoying, here—"

The screen went black, and I let out a long, relieved, exasperated sigh. It didn't matter what happened, failed connection, premature call end, I was glad that he was gone. Though I was sure he was going to call back, it was good to have this little time to recompose myself. I toyed with the idea of not answering his next call but decided against it. I just didn't feel like ticking him off tonight.

I laid back onto my couch for a few minutes before I began to question whether he was going to call back. Not that it mattered, I didn't actually want to talk to the wily bastard. In fact, I was about ready for another beer.

Standing up was almost a chore for me, but I managed to get to my feet. Passing by the radio, I turned up the volume to some beating song, disregarding the fact that it would hinder my ability to hear Jack's next call. If there was going to be one. Not that I cared. Reaching my pack of beers I popped one open, but just before I put the bottle to my lips there was a loud banging at the door.

Immediately my instincts told me to shut off the radio, turn off my lights and aim my Jakobs sniper at whoever stood on my front step. A second of thought and a reassuring breath told me to relax and remember that this neighborhood was protected by the Hyperion bots. It was one of the benefits that came with the job. Workers would be provided homes and safety so they could continue working at the company. Hyperion didn't like their employees dying a week into the job, especially if they were particularly good at it, so getting the robot-protected apartments was practically protocol.

I sighed again, but warily eyed the door. I still wasn't going to trust anything. Reaching behind my couch I pulled out a small pistol and shoved it into the back of my pants. I needed easy access to a weapon, just in case. A lifetime of this kind of living was going to stay with me, regardless of all my reassurances.

Carefully I made my way to the door, and the banging came again. I held my beer tightly in one hand, the other flexing before reaching for the knob. Another breath and I twisted it, swinging it open, my hand immediately flying behind me to the handle of my pistol.

"Ellie, baby, sorry I took so long, the freaking fast travel station was being a total dick."


	3. In Which I Am A Weak Bastard

I stood stunned as I stared into the eyes of my boss, Handsome Jack, leaning with an arm bent against the door frame above him. He had one leg crossed over the other, a hand gripping his hip, and the sliest smile I had ever seen. My mouth opened and closed a couple of times, but I wasn't able to actually say anything.

"Ooh, is that for me?"

Handsome Jack pulled the beer out of my hands, took a swig and swept passed me into the living room. The movement brushed my loose hair against my face as I stayed frozen, my view now of the darkness shrouding the neighborhood. When the cold air hit my face, I whirled around, slamming the door shut.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Jack was lounging on my couch now, feet propped up on the coffee table, arms spread out on the headrests, his head bobbing rhythmically to the music. He didn't seem to hear me, but grinned devilishly at me as he lifted his drink in cheers momentarily and took another swig. He studied the label for a moment afterwards.

"Great beer Ellie!" He said as I approached. "I see why you wanted to get back to it."

I raised my brows at him. "You didn't answer my question, what the hell are you doing here?"

"What, can't a boss come down and just chill out with their employee?" He jut out his bottom lip with feigned sadness. "I had a hard day today."

I threw my hands into the air exasperatedly. Of course he would do something like this, how did I not see it coming. I shut my eyes and shook my head. I was way too drunk to be entertaining my psychotic boss right now.

Letting him do his own thing—chugging the beer and head banging to the song—I walked back to where my stash stood, pulling out another bottle and almost violently popping it open. I put it to my lips, tilting my head upwards to let it flow into my throat. If I was already drunk, I was going to be more drunk. At this point I didn't care of the consequences, in my head more beer meant less worries.

As I lowered my head, having drunk almost half the bottle, I was suddenly aware of a presence behind me. A knot formed in my stomach as a pair of large, rough hands gripped my hips, pulling me backwards into another body. My hair fluttered with a hot breath at the back of my head. I sucked in a hard inhale. What was he doing?

"Sir, what are—"

"Shush!"

The hardness in his voice made me stop where I was, and left me worried for what was going to happen next. He sounded almost angry, but more frustrated. I heard a light groan behind my ear, and as the beat picked up in the song playing from the radio, Jack started moving his hips, pulling mine in tandem. He moved us in a circular motion going up and down, sort of dancing in one spot, perfectly timed to the beat of the music. I knew then what he was doing, but my drunken stupor, as well as my long-neglected sexuality, told me I didn't need to stop it. I was still aroused from my experimentation before, so I had to admit that this felt _good_.

Before long I could feel something firm pressing into my inner thigh, and I bit my lip, arching my back slightly. Jack's movements were becoming a little more erratic, his grinding a little more fervent, a little more desperate. I did nothing to stop him, enjoying my own heat of the moment as the firm thing pressed into a more deliciously scandalous area. My stomach was in turmoil, flipping this way and that. My mouth opened slightly, and I released a light groan of my own, biting my lip and shutting my eyes to revel in this sweet, wrong moment.

Jack's hands were tight, showing no signs of letting go. They guided my hips through the movement, pulling them slightly out of rhythm to elicit gentle moans from both of us. Soon enough they finally began to move. One rounded my hip and rested on my belly, fingers splayed out as support to press my body into his. The other slid up my waist, around my back and tangled its fingers deliciously into my hair, pulling my head back to rest on his shoulder. He was almost thrusting his hips now. I could feel his hot breath on my ear, ragged and rough, yet I sensed a sort of frustrated confliction in it.

My fingers were curled into tight balls on the counter, my metal hand making a slight scratching sound against it, my body contorted in nearly two different ways in my position. Part of me was scolding me on how wrong this was. Another was telling me how damn fucking good it felt. And another was in the back, quieter than the other two, question the reasoning behind Jack's sudden, odd behavior. It was a voice growing increasingly louder as we continued our arousing dance, and I soon found myself absorbed with one question:

 _Why was he doing this?_

But before I could explore the question further, Jack suddenly stopped.

Our breathing was mismatched and hard. I could feel the huskiness of his breath on my ear, his lips so close. I climbed down from the mild euphoria, ready to ask him why he had stopped, before I suddenly felt cold in place of his heat. It took me a moment to realize that was no longer holding me. His hands on my stomach and in my hair disappeared, his breath gone, his hips all but absent. Silence passed before my door slammed violently shut behind me. My body flinched from the unexpected sound, and I looked behind me.

Jack was gone, leaving me to wonder if he was ever even there in the first place.

And then the voices were strong enough to make the blush turn my skin red and the shame make my head and stomach swirl.

"Fuck…"

I curled alone onto my couch, still riding on the arousal but afraid to act upon it. My metal arm felt heavy, lying as dead weight beside my face. There was enough of sexual exploits done that night than I had done in five years. I didn't need any more.

The morning came like a slap to the face. I sought out the toilet where I spewed the contents of my drinks and the food I had before it. My head beat like drums, making my vision dizzy and my mind hurt with thinking. Dressing up was hell, and there was no damn way I was going to eat anything. All I could think about was getting to work and starting my first day as the head engineer, facing my boss, whom I almost got down and dirty with the night before.

My instincts were telling me to run. To go back to the dead deserts of Pandora, to sniper some bandits and take their loot, to risk a fight with a Varkid because there was no way in hell that I was facing Handsome Jack after last night's fiasco.

But part of me did want to see him. I wanted to see what his reaction was to seeing me again. Would he break out in that devilish smile of his? Would he avert his eyes and just ignore me? Would he stare at me in revulsion? I was afraid of all three, but I had to know where he lie in all this. He was, after all, the one who started it, and although I did nothing to stop it, I had to know why the hell he tried it in the first place.

 _And why he ran off so quickly before finishing._

The rebel voice in my head sounded disappointed. It was wrong, but it was so good. Why start something so profound then run off into the night before anybody got to reach the end of it?

Plenty of thoughts raced to my head as I walked down the halls of the Hyperion station. There were too many, and I needed them all to go away. I stepped into the elevator about to press the button to the top floor before somebody suddenly jerked me out of the metal compartment.

"Ah yes, Ms. Ellis, thank god you're here!" A voice exclaimed, pulling me back me into the hallway. I watched as the elevator doors closed behind me, and almost felt relieved that I was stopped before going to Jack's office. It was almost like the Universe was telling me that I was making a mistake.

"You left before we could catch you yesterday, so there's no time to lose!" The voice said again, and I turned my head to see the short blonde hair of some woman in a blazer.

She ran in front of me, pulling me by my human arm as we swept past several rooms and more hallways than I could care to count.

Before long I didn't let silence rule anymore. "Uh, what's this about?"

The lady said nothing, clutching a clipboard tightly in her arm. I got glances of lip gloss and brown eyes, but her tugging me along made it difficult to see the rest of her face. When I almost had enough of her mystery, we stopped in front of a large door that resembled a garage entrance. She finally turned around, clicking a pen and writing a few things onto her clipboard.

"Right, Ellis, uh… do you have a last name?"

I thought for a moment. "Good question."

"Right, we'll just forgo that one..." She mumbled to herself. "Okay, anyways, hi! My name is Devon and I'm the employee coordinator. I know this is coming later than it should, but after Handsome Jack's last head engineer reached an, um, unfortunate end," She tugged on her collar momentarily. "…We had to clear out his stuff from his office. Not to mention scrub out a few things, but we finished it early yesterday morning. We went looking for you but guessed you left after Jack's—"She cleared her throat, "Evaluation."

Cleary my first day with Jack had happened before.

"Does he always do that to the new employees?" I asked as Devon smoothed her platinum blonde hair against her skull. It was so clean and crisp, I almost wondered if it was fake.

She shook her head. "Only to the females. And usually to the ones he finds really attractive, so you should consider yourself lucky. He likes attractive girls"

If she wasn't so good natured about it I would have considered her comment backhanded. "Yeah, I guess I should."

"Oh, and I heard," She leaned in, one hand shielding her mouth against the open hallway. "…that Jack likes to continue his evaluation on the ones he _really_ likes later when they aren't at work. Like at home and stuff."

A smile, something short of slyness and shyness, stretched across her glossy lips. I gulped. That may have been my answer. Being the vulgar psycho that Jack was, it would fit perfectly that he was just continuing his evaluation of me, away from prying eyes. A part of me felt a little disappointed at that, and I really couldn't understand why. But then again, the fact that he had sought out privacy to continue it, meant I was the one of the ones he _really_ liked. But this was all pieced together because of the info from Devon, so for all _I_ knew, Jack was just bored with his current staff and sought out a cheap thrill in the newest addition.

I sighed inwardly. Day 2, and already I was facing sexual tension with my boss. Once again I was glad I was pulled away from my initial course.

"Anyways," The blonde said, regaining her posture and smoothing her hair again. "You're new office is ready."

She turned to face the garage-like door, pressing four zeroes on the keypad on the right hand side. I waited patiently as the door slid upwards at a crawl, and as it revealed to me the other side my eyes grew wide with awe.

The door was just a hint at what my office looked like. It was enormous, as large as a small warehouse, filled with gadgets and tech and scrap metal and everything. I heard my boots fall onto the cement floor below me as I walked inside, my jaw dropping as I twirled around to see the fullness of the place.

"This is incredible!" I exclaimed, and I heard Devon giggle a little. Clearly she was happy to see my reaction. "This place is huge, how can you call it an office?"

I bounded over to a few tables pushed together, several sets of tools arranged neatly onto the metal surfaces. There was every instrument imaginable for me to use, all at my disposal. Above me hung unfinished loader bots. On the wall to my right hung a rack fitted with all the guns I had ever seen as well as those I had only ever heard of. And to the rooms in the back there was metal and pieces and just everything that someone of my profession could possibly use. It was an engineer's heaven.

Maybe working with Handsome Jack wouldn't be as bad as I thought.

I bounded around the giant room, my eyes at a constant wideness, my mouth stretching into several forms of smiles and grins and laughs. It was a sandbox, and I was a child surrounded with every toy imaginable. I was so distracted, so delightfully into my new office that I barely heard that Devon had answered my question. Her voice was drowned out by the millions of excited thoughts in my head, so much that I didn't hear her abruptly stop talking and gasp at something well into my admiration of the office.

Paying no mind to her I ran to the wall of guns, my mouth growing wider with awe as I pulled a pistol off the wall. It gleamed under the lights, so shiny and fitted perfectly on my metal arm. I inspected it closely, and another laugh broke onto my face as I realized what it was.

"Devon, Devon look, it's a—"I whirled around, the gun clutched between my fingers, ready to show the coordinator how fucking excited I was for it all. But as I turned to face the blonde woman at the other side of the room, I was met with a devilish smile and multi-colored eyes and the smile fell from my face.

Handsome Jack stood leaning against the garage door frame, arms and legs crossing one another. Beside him Devon stood silently, looking rather uncomfortable due to the close proximity she was with her boss. I cleared my throat, feeling a cold sweat envelope my body as I clutched the pistol in my hands.

Wow, talk about a mood killer.


	4. In Which Jack Is An Asshole

"Handsome Jack, sir," I began, turning to hang the gun onto its rightful place back on the rack. "I didn't know you'd be stopping by."

The man with a silver streak of hair opened his mouth for a chuckle. "What, and miss all this? My other engineers were all excited to see their office, but your reaction is by far the cutest."

"Something makes me think that's not the only reason you came here, sir."

Devon, sensing there was more to the conversation than she knew, quietly excused herself and zipped away, leaving me alone with my infuriating boss. I was sad to see her go, a friend-like connection growing to her presence, but it also dealt with her being a buffer for the conversation I wished I wasn't going to have with Jack. I glanced back to the said psycho, whose own eyes had flickered to watch Devon disappear.

"Ellie, baby, why the attitude?" Jack said, uncrossing his arms and slowly making his way towards me. He had that goddamn fake sadness look on his face, jutted lower lip and everything. "And here I thought we were off to a freakin' good start."

I ignored him as best as I could and picked up a wrench from my table of tools, pretending to inspect it. I could see Jack approach from the corner of my eyes. "What attitude? I'm just speaking my mind. And please, sir, I would like it if you refrained from calling me 'Ellie'. Just Ellis, would be fine."

An annoyed groan escaped his lips as he leaned one arm on the tool table, the other latching onto his hip. "God, you're no fun, Ellie." He said, completely ignoring my request. "Seriously, what the hell's gotten into you, you were so much fun yesterday."

Unsure which part of yesterday he spoke of, I played around with the wrench. "I don't consider myself fun, sir. It's all on you with thinking that it's fun."

"Oh, I know what's gotten you to be such a sour-puss." Jack said, again ignoring my words. A smile crept into his voice, and I felt the sweat rise again. "It's because of last night, isn't it?" He said in a dark, hushed tone.

When I lifted my eyes Jack was directly in front of me. There was that sly smile again, and as he pushed forward to pin me against the table behind me, the wrench fell from my hand and clattered against the cement floor.

"I—I don't know what you're talking about, sir."

"Oh, but Jacky thinks you do."

He pressed his hips into mine, and even without his arousal from before I could feel something there. One hand clamped onto my waist while another roamed up my stomach and my chest. His fingers skimmed over my breasts, sending a shiver down my spine. Brushing past my collarbone and my neck they found themselves once again tangled in my hair, and pulled back roughly. I hated to admit how I liked his methods as my eyes faced the ceiling, feeling his body lean down, his head dip and his hot breath on my neck.

"Jacky think…" He began, gently nipping the skin of my throat, "That you wanna finish what you started last night."

I felt a delightful shudder course through my body, and I knew Jack sensed it. He chuckled darkly, his lips pressing into my neck. The hand at my waist began a journey down my hips and rounded to grope me. I sucked in a breath, jerking slightly, but only pushing myself harder against his body.

An odd sensation came over me as Jack's mouth roamed my neck. His breath and tongue were hot, but his lips were cool. It was strange to feel two different temperatures in one spot, and a small section in my head stood wondering why his mask wasn't warm. He always wore it, never taking it off. Maybe whatever it was made out of just couldn't heat up.

It was an odd thing to think about, especially in this situation where I could feel something firm being pressed into a rather inconspicuous place, but as I couldn't quite grasp it with my addled brain, the query was the only thing I could hold onto at that moment.

Why was I so weak around him? Why couldn't I get some self-control? Already this was the second time this was happening, and I had yet to do anything about it. I was pretty sure, however, that part of my not being able to stop Jack from using me the way he was, was because of my neglected sexuality. God it had been a long time since anyone made me feel as good as he did, and I damn well knew I just couldn't pass this up.

As wrong as it fucking was.

I decided that if I was going to partake in this profane act, I might as well not let him do all the work. My hands, which had been previously stuck to the edges of the table, lifted to slide up his chest and over his shoulders. I was intent on lacing my fingers through that hair of his, ready to confirm suspicions of its godliness, before there were voices coming towards us at the hall beyond my garage door. When Jack did nothing to react, I figured he assumed it wasn't for him.

But it seemed fate just didn't want me to get laid. "Handsome Jack!" One of the voices called, and Jack stalled his lips long enough to groan aloud into the base of my neck.

I could hear some stumbling. One voice sounded like Devon's, telling the other that Jack was busy. But the other voice ignored her and continued to call for him. After a few moments of this, I could hear them enter the room, and Jack whipped his head up at them.

"What, what the hell do you want, _ASS_ tner?" He asked rather angrily. I lowered my eyes from the ceiling, watching his face contort into frustration. It was kind of hot to see him so mad, and I wondered for a moment what would be like if he released that anger on me under the covers.

I had to shake my head to rid myself of the thought. Sure, I wanted it, but that didn't necessarily mean I would get it. For all I was sure of, Jack just wanted to tease me and scurry off into the night. It kind of left me wondering what he did with himself after he left the other night. Did he take care of himself? Or did he just wait it out because it was too weird to act upon anything that involved me?

"Sir, we have an update on the Vault Hunters!"

My ears perked on that. In reaction I turned my head to look at the person delivering the news, but swiftly Jack's hand lifted to pull it back towards him. He stood fully now, holding me against his chest, almost protectively. But even with the closeness of our bodies, my face began to burn with anger.

Was he so disgusted with me that he wouldn't let anybody see the face of the woman he had twice now teased to frustration? Did he intend to use me discreetly then throw me to the side in hopes that nobody saw the person he was releasing his sexual frustrations on?

The appearance of the man and his news changed Jack's mood. "Fine, just go to my freakin' office and wait for me there. Like, now, _Ass_ tner, I've dealt enough of your pansy ass today, I don't wanna deal with it any more than I have to."

There was a silence that passed before I realized that we were alone again. I had to wonder for a moment why the messenger said nothing on the fact that he caught his boss in an intimate moment with one of his employees. A fleeting thought told me that maybe he was used to seeing Jack getting down with his staff, and I could feel my face burn hotter. What the hell was I getting myself into?

Jack finally let go of my face and I lifted my arms to give him an almighty shove. It did no difference due to his size and strength, but he got the idea and took a step back, lifting his own arms, palms up. "Whoa, whoa, pumpkin, what's gotten into you, I thought we were having fun here."

"Hardly." I quipped, bending to scoop the wrench from the floor.

"Aww, is Ellie mad because she can't get laid by her boss?" He spoke to me as if I were a child, and I could just picture that bottom lip of his jutting out in a pout. I turned back around to the table, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath to calm my heart beating from anger and arousal.

I placed the wrench neatly back in its place on the table, wishing I snuck some alcohol into work. God, this second day sucked, almost as bad as the first. "Sir, I think you should just go and deal with the news on the Vault Hunters." I mumbled, my hands balled into fists.

Jack rolled his eyes but laughed a little, stepping closer to place his hands at my arms. "Playing hard to get, are we Ellie. Well that's okay, pumpkin, I like difficult game."

I shuddered as I felt him sweep my hair to my shoulder, and flinched when I felt his teeth sink into the back of my neck.

With that he was gone. I watched him strut across the cement floor and enter the code by the door. He flashed me a wink and a devilish grin as the door slid back down, leaving me to be alone in my office.

God I fucking hated that man.

In a fit of anger I picked up the wrench I had place onto the table with my metal arm and flung it at the wall. A scream tore through my throat and sounded throughout the room. The wrench smacked against the wall and snapped in half, clattering into two pieces onto the floor.

"Stupid fucking Handsome Jack." I said to myself, my hands clenched, my chest heaving with heavy, ragged breaths.

After my fit Devon had come along with a cart full of broken guns. She told me Jack had ordered me to fix them for him, some sort of laugh I was sure he was getting with it. I hunkered down to work anyways, spending the rest of my evening taking the guns apart and figuring out what was wrong with them.

I was fortunate, however, to find an old, dusty radio hidden behind one of the tool shelves on wheels. It was a miracle that it still worked, having been neglected by fat, old engineers in the years before. I set it to my favorite station and worked until my arousal died down and pushed Jack to the back of my head until the work day was over and I was able to go home. I wasn't keen on getting drunk that night, though, as I was afraid of getting another call and impromptu visit from my boss.

Even when a small part of me wished it would happen again.


	5. In Which I Finally Get Used To My Job

I didn't see Jack for the next two weeks as much as I saw him my first two days working at Hyperion. It turned out that things were more serious than anyone thought. I knew it had something to do with the Vault Hunters that the messenger from before mentioned, but I didn't actually know what was going on. I was just happy with the freedom, not really under Jack's watchful eye as much as I thought I would be.

In my office, I was stuck in my own little world, an engineer's heaven. I created new gadgets and fiddled with old ones. I pulled down a loader bot and took it apart, working to give more gun power and less bulkiness. I took the guns off the racks and boosted elemental capacity, improving sniper scope range and even fixing up aim. I was in my zone, my element and god it was blissful.

It had been a long time since I was able to relax in the way I did in that office, so finally I was able to get used to working at Hyperion.

"You've got another project from Jack." A voice came from the other side of the room. When I heard it, I flipped up my protective visor from a little spark work, and waved my arm at the radio, the volume turning down low enough for me to hear the other person in the room.

Now there was a gadget that I was immensely proud of. I had hooked up a system to my robotic arm that allowed me to control things via hand gestures. It was originally meant for the radio, but soon I was able to make it compatible for computer screens, comms, digital weapons and even ECHO devices. There were plenty of other things that I was able to create, but this one by far was the best thing I ever made.

"What does he want me to make now?" I asked as I slid off my visor and let it clank onto the metal table in front of me.

A young, darker-skinned boy around the age of fourteen came bounding up with a set of papers in hand. He was my assistant, an orphan who called himself Marlow. It was around my fourth day at work when Devon came into Hyperion with him, hoping to find him a job, even when she knew he was too young and didn't fit any criteria. She had discovered him a few months previously, scared and badly injured, and took him in to nurse him back to health. When he was well enough she knew she couldn't support the both of them for long and took him to the company to see if he fit into anything.

When nothing seemed to be working out for them I stepped in and queried whether he was allowed to come and work for me. Devon was absolutely ecstatic, and after a few examinations to test his skill, Marlow came around to be my very own assistant. He was very on edge when we began to work together, but after some time we were able to bond a little and grow pretty close. I saw him as a sort of brotherly figure almost immediately, but best kept it to myself knowing our relationship still had far along to go before that sort of connection could be made.

"I think he want you to make tiny loader bots." Marlow said, setting the stack of paper onto a table and jumping onto a high chair near me.

"Tiny loader bots, what the hell?" I said in near disbelief, swiping the stack of papers off the table and skimming down the requests. Through the few weeks, Jack had taken to a habit of writing full reports of strange gadgets and ridiculous tech he wanted me to build to improve his company. So far I had to deal with leg guns, hideaway rocket wings, and a tiny Varkid he wanted to use for spying. I was able to build their basis, the bare bones and tech, but they proved more difficult than expected, which resulted in one too many unpleasant conversations with Jack over the comm.

And sure enough, of every strange thing he had demanded of me to create, here he was asking me to build loader bots the size of a child. "Seriously Jack?"

"I think he's doing it to make fun of you." Marlow said with a small laugh. I swiped at him with my human arm and smacked the stack of papers onto the table. "He's probably just giving you these stupid things to see if he can stump you."

"And he's doing a good job of it, too." I said, pulling off my gloves and reaching around to untie my apron. I pulled the protective leather clothing off over my head and hung it on a hanger near the door. "Anyways, I didn't have breakfast today, so I'm starved. What do you say we go get a bite to eat, kiddo."

Marlow bobbed his head in agreement and hopped off his high chair. He took off his own gloves and tossed them into a cubby against the wall. We shut down the office before washing up at the cleaning station and headed down to the cafeteria to grab some lunch.

When we entered the cafeteria, Devon waved us over to join her, munching on some mush that the cooks had served up for us today. Marlow prepared himself a platter while I settled on a few large items of fruit. Even that was enough for me to go on compared to the very miniscule meals I used to have back on Pandora.

"So how's work going?" I asked Devon as she reached over to hug Marlow. The boy with medium brown skin returned the gesture to his surrogate mother, and swiftly continued to eat their food. I smiled at them. They loved to show affection to one another, but both often found their adoration of each other a little too showy for the rest of the workers in Hyperion.

Devon rolled her eyes in response to my question, swallowing her bite. "You won't believe the replacements flowing in for the code workers! Jack's been using cubicle employees as target practice because, and these are his own words, 'They lead boring lives and could use some excitement'. Coming from him? He was the one who put them there in the first place!"

I shook my head at Devon's story. Such was the person known as Handsome Jack. If he wasn't so keen on keeping the public shut about what they thought on his image, I would have called him stupid aloud. "How many have been replaced?"

"Fifty at least."

"Fifty? How many people does a guy need to do target practice?"

Devon shrugged, "As many as it takes, I guess. But he does tend to leave alone the ones on the higher side of the attractive scale. I'm pretty sure part of the reason he keeps using them is because most of them aren't exactly pretty." She took a sip from her cup. "There's no doubt about it now, Jack has _something_ against ugly people."

I chuckled a little. "Well I sure as hell hope he doesn't find _me_ ugly. I'm coming up on two weeks tomorrow, and last I heard, that was the longest any head engineer that ever worked for him has lived."

"Oh that's right!" Devon almost choked on her drink. "I forgot that it's almost been two weeks already! But you don't have to worry about anything. After what happened on your second day at the office, I'm sure he wants to keep you around a little longer."

I knew Devon meant it as a joke, but I ducked my head in shame as if I were being accused. She was there along with the messenger when Jack and I were caught doing our weird thing in my office. When she came back in she couldn't stop laughing and teasing me about it but I just ignored her. It was that dynamic that made us grow closer in friends, and though I wish she never saw it and stopped bringing it back up, I was glad to have someone as light-hearted as her as one of my only friends.

Marlow sat chewing on his food in silence as he listened to his conversation. He was always like that during lunch, silent and observing. Sometimes I worried that he was storing the information we spoke about to use against us in the future, but he just seemed too good of a kid to betray us like that. Especially with a woman like Devon taking care of him.

"Speaking of scandals," Devon said suddenly with wide eyes, leaning in towards me. "Have you heard about Cevit?"

I shook my head. "No, what happened with Cevit?"

As the question left my lips Devon jerked a thumb behind her and my eyes followed her direction to find the person in question sitting alone at a table a little ways away. After furrowing my brow quizzically, the blonde urged me to look some more. I searched Cevit's face over and over, trying to find what it was that Devon wanted me to see. After some more analyzing I realized it wasn't her face I was supposed to be looking at, but her hands.

Her hands were covered in bandages, completely wrapped. There were some spots here and there, and before long I realized that it was blood. My eyes widened.

"Holy shit, they burned her?"

Devon nodded, her own eyes sporting a look of fear.

"But why Cevit? She's so nice, what did she do?"

Devon lifted her shoulders in a puzzled shrug. "I don't know, nobody will tell me. Everybody's been really quiet about her and she's been avoided all morning."

It was rare to see someone burned at Hyperion, but it was always there, always in the shadows, waiting for the next victim. Being burned meant something really bad happened, a consequence of either treason, conspiracy or scandal, but unless you were there to see it yourself, nobody knew which one was done. Only once before I saw that someone was burned, but again I didn't know what for. It was the day I took in Marlow as an assistant, and it was two people, a man and a woman. Both their hands were bandaged up and bleeding badly, and they sat side by side, being completely avoided by everyone else.

This kind of ritual only began when Handsome Jack took over. It was sick to see it, someone as sweet as Cevit subjected to a consequence of completely ruined hands. She could still work, but the scars of her decisions would always be with her. And nobody in the Hyperion liked to be around the ones with the scars.

It was almost the only thing that made Hyperion a bad place. That, and the fact that a person like Handsome Jack was its CEO. I sighed to myself, shaking my head. The more I worked here, the more I heard about how things were run, the more I began to see how incredibly wrong my attraction to him was. This is not the kind of person anyone should feel anything for, so what had I yet to drop him from my radar completely?

"Helloooo people of Hyperion, stop eating your goddamn food, shut up and listen to me." A voice boomed over the intercom. The room immediately fell silent, mouths stopped chewing, people stopped talking. The voice, of course, was Handsome Jack, probably making some sort of announcement of his hero-ness.

"Ellie, baby, you hanging out with your bitch ass friends at the cafeteria right now?"

The entire room turned to look at me, and a fire burned at my skin. The fuck was he calling me out like that? Couldn't he have used the comms or something?

Jack chuckled over some static. "I can just imagine all the crap you're getting from everybody in the room right now, but just ignore those jerks, pumpkin, you don't need that kind of negativity in your life. I need you in my office in about five minutes, pronto. Get your sexy little ass up here or _face the consequences, mwahahaha!_ "

Everybody stared at me as I shrunk into myself in my seat. Devon couldn't help but hold back some laughter with her palm. I glared at her but couldn't hold it against her. Even though she was laughing I knew she felt bad for me. For all any of us knew, five minutes from now I could get a face full of bullets.

"Oh yeah, and you'd better have the Varkid ready."

The intercom crackled to silence, and the room slowly returned to its regular buzz, albeit a little stalled after the mentioning of the Varkid. I groaned inwardly. Sure, the damn thing was ready, but it still had some tweaking to be done. It run on a tiny, compressed, radioactive power core, and without the proper stability, could so possibly explode in someone's face.

But then again, I wouldn't really mind seeing it explode in Jack's face.

Devon reached over to pat me on the shoulder while Marlow offered a comforting smile. I returned with a reassuring one and stood up to throw the scraps of my meal away and discard the tray.

Ugh, I just did not feel like going to his office today.

But beside that, something short of a tingle at the pit of my stomach made me slightly excited. It was two weeks since I last saw him in proper, and the smallest part of me wished we would continue our last meeting. Even though there were times where he absolutely disgusted me, I could no more deny the fact that I was very much attracted to Handsome Jack.

Even when I knew that he thought of me in no such way.


	6. In Which There Are Certain Circumstances

I was feeling nervous this time around.

In the two weeks that I was working at Hyperion, I saw Jack all of five times: two of those times were on my first day, the third was on my second day, and the last two were minor visits to his office to drop off some paperwork. I hadn't properly talked to Jack since the office incident, and knowing now that I was coming face to face with him with the newest spy Varkid, I wasn't sure how we would act around each other.

But really I just hoped he wouldn't be an asshole and seduce me this time around. Seriously, it was all his fault. He preyed on my neglected sexuality and look at where we were now; something more than boss and employee. At least, that was how I saw it. I wasn't sure how he felt about anything, so I didn't even know what to peg him.

I clutched the glass box with the Varkid inside to my chest as I stepped into the elevator. Like the first time I used it, the people already inside squashed themselves to the back to give me clear room. The first time it happened was because they knew I was the new employee, this time however, I suspected they were afraid of the tiny metal creature standing in the small, glass box that I carried.

I toyed with the idea of powering it up and letting it loose on them. It would be fun to hear them scream.

 _Okay, chill out there, Ellis._ I thought to myself with an amused smile, pressing the top level button with a robotic finger. _You actually wanna get past the two week marker, so save the coworker-taunting for next week._

For a moment I had to stop myself to realize that my thoughts betrayed something. It wasn't long after I started working that my head cooked up an idea as to why Jack was showing me the attention that he was. He was a crazy guy, and occasionally I found myself to be a bit of a psycho as well.

Take my days on Pandora for instance: my favorite pastime? Burning bandits alive. There was something in the way they screamed and the smell of their crisping flesh that just made it all—addictive, and from the point of someone who knew a person that acted not so differently, that sort of mentality was pretty alarming.

People say that the crazy ones don't know they're crazy. Maybe I was just doing insane things without noticing it.

For example: letting motherfucking Handsome Jack into my sexual life. Now _that_ was pretty damn crazy.

As the elevator dinged its announcement on the top floor, I stood solitary in the metal compartment. Quickly stepping out, I let out a long breath that I had been holding in. Just because I had to use elevators, didn't mean that I was going to enjoy it. Seriously, I hated small, confining spaces. They were too damn suffocating, and in my line of work suffocation was not an option. It was the open air that I liked, the feeling of vast emptiness surrounding me. I suppose that would be the reason that I liked my office so much.

Handsome Jack's petite secretary, who I had earlier come to know as Venus, sat happily clacking away at her computer. I wondered how someone fragile as her could even stand to be his secretary. I'd be fearing for my life more than I did now. But I suppose I could understand why Jack would want to keep her around. She really was a pretty face.

Venus lifted her head and smiled at me. She raised a hand and pointed at the door, putting a sort of grimace onto her face. I understood as I heard argumentative voices coming from the office.

"He in a meeting?" I asked in a low whisper, setting the box down on her desk.

Venus nodded. "The President of Dahl Industries came for an impromptu negotiation."

"Dahl Corporation? What could they possibly want from Hyperion?"

She shrugged. "Haven't been listening. But from the sounds of it, Jack doesn't sound happy."

I inwardly groaned. Great, I had to see Jack in a sour mood. Just what I needed.

The door to the office opened with an abrupt swing, and an older man in a crisp, pressed suite came storming out with a terribly angry look on his face. Jack's voice called from the office, "And you can take that stupid, fucking proposal of yours and stick it up your annoying, tiny, no-form, flea-bitten ass!"

The man just scoffed, ignoring Venus and I as he swiftly made his way to the elevator and let the doors close. I almost laughed at the exchange, but thought better of it and pushed my reactions down. Venus grimace-smiled at me.

"He'll be seeing you now."

I exhaled in preparation, picking up my glass box and carefully walked to the open door of the office. When I peeked inside, Jack was standing facing away from me, shaking his head, hand raised to pinch the bridge of his nose. He faced the window behind his desk, his silhouette illuminated by the moon. There was that glowing factor again.

And goddamn, why was he good looking even from the back?!

I raised my metal arm and set two knocks onto the door.

"Didn't I just tell you to fuck off?" Jack said, not moving.

I couldn't help but let a small laugh out at that one. "Wrong person, sir."

Jack whipped around so fast I felt slightly hopeful that he snapped his neck in the process. Instead, he lifted his hands to brush his chest and fix his hair as I closed the door behind me and walked towards him. "Ellie, baby, I'm sorry you had to see all that. Dahl is a dick and he should be told so." The heterochromic said, unable to hide a certain tone of tire as he let his devilish smile fall across his face. I rolled my eyes, there was just no quit to the pet names.

"I brought the Varkid," I said as I approached his desk, completely ignoring his empty apology, setting my glass box onto the metal.

Jack clapped his hands together in rejuvenated energy. "Best news I've heard all day! Show me, I wanna see what the little bugger can do."

"Are you sure about that sir? You didn't give me enough time work on it. I can get it started, but I can't guarantee that things will run smoothly."

"Ugh, stop being a mood killer and just turn the damn thing on already."

"Okay, if you insist…"

Jack only momentarily seemed to react to my mumbling, but excitedly looked back at the glass box. I reached down to its edges, unlatching a few clasps. The whole top came off, leaving just the bottom glass pane. On it was a small stand that the tiny, metal Varkid stood on. The whole idea for the tiny robot was to help Jack spy on people. Whether it was on the Vault hunters or other, competitive manufacturers, he wanted something that he could control to keep his eye on things. Using real people as spies was getting a little old, and there was only so much security cameras could cover, especially in the bandit-ridden planet of Pandora.

Why he chose a Varkid as its design, however, was beyond me.

From my back pocket I pulled out an instrument that fitted over my ear and held a small, glass pane over my right eye.

"This," I began as I secured the instrument onto my face. "Is the agent interface. It's meant for portability, but it's not just limited to it, the screen can be transferred to any larger, flat surface."

Jack studied me, looking more interested than I initially hoped, his hand holding his jaw in thought.

"The interface is very versatile, but not only in view ability. It controls the agent via voice command and can also be hooked up to any remote or controller with the right connection. For example…" I looked directly at the Varkid. "Agent Oh-Oh, activate."

The Varkid's eyes lit up with a bright green, and it lifted from its small stand with a flutter of metallic wings. To demonstrate the other form of control, I waved my hand in a series of gestures. It mirrored the movements exactly, turning around when I twirled my hand, flying up, down, left and right when I swiped those ways, speeding up and stopping when I splayed my fingers and clenched them into a fist.

Jack watched in near awe as I demonstrated my invention. He barked a laugh when I moved backwards to project the Varkid's view from the interface to the floor.

"Ellie, baby, you've really outdone yourself!" Jack exclaimed, watching the Varkid intently like a child about ready to snatch its birthday presents. "This thing is the bomb! I can't wait to show it off to Dahl and all the other pussy manufacturers and watch them piss their pants in envy!"

I was surprised at Jack's nature on the whole thing, relieved even, but so far the only thing that made me happy was how smoothly the demonstration was going so far. Though I vowed to immediately take a look at the core as soon as I was able to take it back to the office. Even with its minor use, I was afraid of the strain that was it was causing it.

"You asked me to make a spy, I made you a spy." I concluded to his remarks. As a bit of fun for myself I directed the agent over to land on Jack's large nose, and the older man gave me a warning look. I couldn't help but laugh a little and directed the Varkid to move.

But as I swiped my hand to have it fly away, it didn't move. Jack just raised his brow in concern at me. I swiped my finger two more times but it didn't respond.

"Everyone goin' great there, cupcake?" Jack asked, crossing his arms and looking slightly impatient.

"I—I don't know, it's not doing anyth—"

The interface displayed bold red letters: ERROR. I cursed aloud. Fucking hell. I forgot that Jack's mask was made with some mysterious metal, and didn't think over what might come of it if I brought together both elements. The display blinked a couple of times, and I realized that I should probably take it off before something bad happened.

But as I reached up to take the interface off, there was a high pitch noise that squealed through the air. Immediately I recognized the sound and leapt towards Jack.

"Jack get back!" I cried.

Jack, thinking I was going to tackle him, held his arms up in defense. Instead of what he expected, I swiped at the Varkid off his nose with my metal arm, violently pushing him to the side and jumped the other way. A split second later, there was a blinding white that flashed over my eye, and the Varkid in hand exploded.

The explosion knocked me off my feet, and I cried out in pain as I fell to the ground. My metal arm felt lighter, as if half of it had been taken off. My left eye was dark when it closed while my right was enveloped in a light that wasn't fading as fast as it should have. I heard a thump on the other side of the room, something heavy landing on the ground, and was soon aware of a splitting pain at my side.

I had to gulp air, the wind having been knocked out of me rather forcefully. Reaching up with my human arm I ripped the interface off my ear and sent it flying against some wall. Slowly I crawled to my knees, falling over onto to my human elbow. Pain shot through my body; my face, my side, my leg and even the base of my metal arm. My throat screamed for air, and again I had to fight to breathe some oxygen in. I coughed violently a couple of times, feeling something warm splatter onto my arm.

Slowly I opened my eyes again. I could only see through my left, as the vision in my right one was nothing but white light. Looking down I confirmed my suspicions that the Varkid had indeed blown off half of my robot arm, finding it a few feet away, lying in pieces. Carefully I scanned my body, wincing with movement. A section of my right side was burned and covered in blood, my clothing singed and melted in places.

"Son of a..." I wheezed with another cough. "…bitch."

I knew this was going to happen. I should have fought with Jack more on the idea to turn it on at such an unstable part of its life. I wouldn't be here, half dead and he wouldn't be—wait, where was he anyway?

Painstakingly I sat up, still leaning heavily on my arm, looking around the room for my boss. Jack was gong kill me when he saw that the wall, the desk and a section of the floor was covered in bits of debris and charcoal. Before I was able to find him, I heard a cough on the other side of his desk.

"Ellie, what the fuck was that?" I heard him say, though half my hearing was filled with a long, ringing noise. I watched as he brought an arm up to pull his body from the floor breathing in a short, painful sigh of relief as nothing seemed wrong with him. Except for a little bit of dirt on his clothing, he came out of the whole mess pretty much unscathed.

And although I held the bulk of the injuries, I was glad he was fine. If he was the one to take the fall, well, let's just say I would rather be severely injured than full of his bullets of revenge.

"I told you—"I coughed hard again, "I couldn't guarantee that it would… run smoothly." I struggled with my words, my lungs burning and my throat strained.

"Now that is an understatement if I've ever heard one." The man said with a laugh, almost as if he was amused by it. He looked at me finally, my one-armed, badly burned and blinded hunched form and the smile fell.

"Holy hell." He managed to say, realizing what I had done when I pushed him out of the way earlier. A laugh of disbelief and thrill left his lips as he stared at my pathetic form. "Ellie, cupcake, did you just, like, take a bullet for me?"

Before I could respond the door to the office swing open and a terrified Venus stood at the threshold. One look at me and she gasped loudly, scampering over to me. "Ellis, oh my god, what happened!?" She cried, falling to my level and holding my face in her hands.

"Minor setback." I said with a mildly painful shrug.

Jack let loose a loud cackle. "Who the hell is chick?!" He asked his secretary, then redirected his attention to me. "Ellie, you can really take a freakin' punch!"

Now there was a compliment that was going to get me into trouble in the future.

I looked back to Venus and managed a weak smile. "Can we just, have the doctor over here? Like soon? I think I'm losing a lot of blood, and I don't think I'm going to be able to stay conscious for much longer."

As if on cue my vision began to fade, and soon I fell forward into Venus' shoulder, listening to a chorus of Handsome Jack's laughter as stepped into a dream about death.


	7. In Which Things Get A Little Crazy

When I woke up it was dark.

For the first few moments of consciousness, I began to panic. My chest started to rise and fall in heaves as I sat up from whatever soft surface that I lie on. The fear spread through me like wildfire, and in my groggy state all could think was of but one question: Was I blind?

"Help," I croaked, trying to move, but a dull pain in my side stopped me. And then there were gently hands on my chest, pushing me back down very carefully.

"It's okay Ellis, you're okay."

I swiveled my head to the direction of the voice. "Devon? Devon is that you? What's happening, Devon, where am I, why can't I see anything?"

A silence followed my query, and I sensed a tension in the air. "You're at the medical bay, Ellis. Your eyes are fine they're just… they're just bandaged up."

"Why are my eyes bandaged up?"

My fingers lifted, feeling around my face to confirm what I was told. Sure enough, a thick fabric was wrapped over my eyes all around my head. I didn't understand why I hadn't realize that it was there in the first place, but for now I was just relieved to know that I wasn't permanently visually impaired.

I could hear Devon wet her lips. "Because of the surgery."

My heart began to sink as she spoke. "What surgery…" I asked quietly, even when a small voice in my head seemed to already know what the answer was.

"I wasn't there to see what happened, the explosion at Jack's office, but the Doctor told me that you're right eye experienced flash blindness." She sounded uncomfortable, holding a significant amount of sadness in her voice. "He said sometimes they go away, because the eyes are able to readjust after a certain amount of time… but after looking at yours, he said it was permanent."

I stared into the darkness that clouded my vision, a hand reaching up to touch the place where my right eye was. "Am I blind in this one…?"

"You were. That's what the surgery was about. He had to take out your human eye and replace it with a robot one…"

The sinking feeling in my stomach smacked me in my gut.

Not this. Not again.

I was always afraid that something like this would happen again. That after another stupid incident I would have another body part replaced with robotics. After the first time, after I lost my arm and got a metal one, I told myself I would always be careful. I just couldn't let it happen again. It was too much. Losing my arm was a part of me that I would never get back, a part of who I was that was lost forever.

And now, almost half of my right side had been replace by robotics.

A wry laugh left my lips as I could feel moistness pooling behind the bandages. There was a change in the air, as if Devon was concerned at my behavior. I just continued laughing, crying through the left side of the fabric.

"At this rate I'll be a robot by next year."

"Ellis please don't do that."

"I can do whatever the fuck I want."

The air stung. A long scrape came to my ears before I heard the sound of heals walking away from me. Devon was my friend, but not even my friends could lighten my mood. Not at this time. I just laughed until I felt bad for myself.

I lie in my bed for what seemed like hours, my head tipped towards the ceiling. I stared into the abyss that was my vision, seeing things that weren't there, hallucinating colors when it was all just blackness. More than once I felt the tears sting, feeling sorry for myself like I used to back on Pandora. Feeling helpless and useless all at once. When I actually cried, it only made things worse as only my left eye would produce any tears. So no matter what, when I tried to push it to the back of my head or let my emotions wash over me to help me forget it all, the reminder that I was just going through the same thing as my arm came rushing back.

And just when my life was picking up. Just when things were finally getting better for me, the Universe had to turn around and spit in my face. I guess I just wasn't allowed to be happy. Wasn't given the right to ever enjoy myself.

It seemed like forever before I heard someone walking towards me. They weren't heels this time, but at least there was finally going to be some human interaction.

"Ellis, my dear, how are you doing?" A deep, dapper voice asked as they approached.

I didn't move my head and answered in a flat, sarcastic voice. "I'm fine Dr. Gen, how are you."

The doctor just laughed, ignoring my remark and put his hand onto my forehead. "You'll be pleased to know that the operation was a success! Your new eye has healed very well and we can start removing your bandages right now."

"Right now? But I thought I just got it."

"Oh, no, no, you got it three days ago! You've been asleep for quite a while now."

Slowly the doctor help me sit upright in my bed, rearranging the pillow behind my back so I could lean on it comfortably. "Three days? I can't have been asleep for that long, I have a job to do."

"Yes, yes, I know, but you don't have to worry about that. Handsome Jack gave you medical leave after he ordered me to give you a new eye. Oh, and the new arm."

On impulse my arm twitched, and I suddenly remembered that I had lost it in the blast.

What the hell?

"Handsome Jack… told you to fix me up?"

I heard a faint snipping sound. "Oh yes. Normally employees don't just get new robotic body parts after an accident, there's this whole week-long process where you have to send the request, receive approval, cover costs and whatnot. And Handsome Jack, being the rich, CEO of the company, just ordered me to give you the parts himself and, boom! You don't ever have to know what it's like to be armless or blind ever again!"

I was stunned. My boss got me my new robotic parts? Why would he do that?

"Alrighty, let's get down to it."

I felt a faint pressure on my temple as the doctor pulled at the bandage and snipped through it. He repeated the process through the next few layers before most of them slid of my face. Light poured at me from the other side of my eyelids but something didn't want to make me open them. I was afraid of what I would see, even what I wouldn't see. I just didn't want to use the new eye.

Using it felt like I would be accepting it.

"It's okay Ellis, you can open them. It works just fine, maybe even better than your original one. The one I put it was one of the best we had. By the request of Handsome Jack, of course."

Gently I let my eyes flutter open. It was bright at first, the starkness of the blackness still in my vision before slowly I readjusted. I flickered them left and right, up and down, around in circles until I was sure I couldn't feel a goddamn difference. I guess I at least had that going for me. A little less reminder that it was just another part of me that wasn't really me.

My arm was different, however. It was replaced with better tech, shiner metals and smoother surfaces. I didn't even know that people could get parts in this kind of material but here it was, gleaming in the light before my eyes.

"Oh, and before you look in the mirror to see if things still look the same, I should inform you that we had no grey eye colors. Or even blues that looked sort of grey. Had to settle for the lightest blue we had, but it's pretty blue, so you you'll look a little different. Don't fret though, it's actually a rather good look for you."

The doctor let me out of the medical bay that afternoon. He told me to go straight home, to eat lots of food and get lots of rest. But that wasn't what I wanted to do. I needed to do something else first. I needed to see someone first.

Immediately crossed the station to the elevator. I didn't let anyone or anything stop me, I ran past everything until I made it to his office. I spoke to no one, I stopped for nothing. Tunnel vision took me over as I had to go find Handsome Jack and talk to him.

When the elevator door dinged open at the top floor I stormed through. I barely caught the eye of Venus, who in surprised stood up from her desk as I passed by. She didn't try to halt me, and rightly so. I barreled my way to the office, slamming both doors against the wall as I entered. Jack sat in his chair, facing away from me but swiveled over once he heard the commotion.

There was something odd about his smile. It was slightly delayed. "Uh–cupcake! Nice to see you back from medical on your— sexy legs!" He swung his arms open wide, as if he were to give me a hug. I only approached him and slammed my hands onto his desk.

That was weird. He seemed confused for some reason, and the look on his face wasn't sitting well with me.

"Why did you give me the eye?" I demanded with a hard glare.

A brow raised on his masked forehead. "Excuse me…cupcake?"

"Answer the fucking question, Jack, why did you tell Dr. Gen to give me the parts!?" I yelled, hitting his desk with two fists and leaning in towards him.

Jack only leaned backwards in his chair, trying to look nonchalant as he cracked a weak, devilish smile onto his face. "Why, not?"

What the hell was wrong with him?

I threw my arms into the air in a frustrated growl and picked up some trinket off his desk, turning to toss it against the wall with my new metal arm. The object shattered into a million pieces, and when I turned to face Jack again, he was standing up, hand on his chin, studying me intently. He didn't even seem mad about whatever it was of his that I broke.

"You know… pumpkin, you're kind of hot when you're angry."

"Just tell me what your motive is!" I cried, clenching my arms at my sides.

"I don't have a motive." He replied. Part of his behavior was telling me that he was sincere, while the other part seemed as if he had no idea what I was talking about.

He was so fucking frustrating. God I wanted to strangle him.

I gestured to my arm and my eye. "Then why all this, huh? Why order the doctor to give me the new parts? I know how hard it is for an employee to get all this, why take it upon yourself to give me special treatment?"

"Cuz, uh…" He had stalled for a second, and quickly turned around. He faced the window as if he was studying it, thinking hard. What the fuck was this guy doing?"

"Jack, just tell me why you did it! Don't you think should know?"

It seemed like a while as Jack didn't turn around, just staring at the window as if he didn't know what to do. After a few deafening moments of silence, his shoulders sagged in a sigh. I felt slightly put off. Was Jack even capable of sighing?

He turned around. "Look, Ellis…" Since when did he use my full name? "I just, I did what I had to. You made sure I didn't get hurt in the blast, so I made sure you would get out of it better off than what you had before."

His heterochromatic eyes were weird, odd, almost alien, but I almost didn't noticed because of the words that left his mouth. It was so soft, sincere—it was almost like the words he spoke weren't coming from him. Like it wasn't Jack talking to me.

I fell into a stunned silence. He was repaying me for pushing him away from the explosion. My face fell, my arms suddenly heavy. I looked at the ground, an arm reaching up to run through my hair. "But—I didn't want this…"

The tension in the air changed almost immediately. "Didn't want this? Do you know how much your replacements costed?" He started laughing, leaving me confused whether he was angry or amused. "It was like a fortune! You know, you're kind of a bitch"

My head snapped up to face him standing in front of me, and my hand reached up to sock him across the face.

For a long moment we stood there in stunned silence. Me slowly coming to the realization of what I'd done; him standing with his face turned from the force of the punch. Slowly he turned his head back to me, hand reaching up to readjust his jaw.

"Son of a GUN that hurt!" He cried, his chest heaving with another laugh. I pulled back slightly, my brows furrowing with disbelief. "Damn Ellis that was painful!"

"I—I don't understand, shouldn't you be angry?"

"Angry? Why the hell for!" He was obviously in pain, his face scrunching slightly, but he was forcing himself to act as if he didn't mind. My own face contorted into an even more confused look. Who the fuck was this guy?

Jack laughed weakly some more, looking down at me. "Gotta tell you cupcake, this is a side I… haven't seen from you before."

I was so angry and confused at him. He made things so difficult when it came to him, so damn confusing that I just couldn't feel one emotion around him, just a swirl of everything building inside me, ready to explode at the right moment. I felt my breath growing ragged as I stared up at him, my chest heaving up and down in a rising hyperventilation. I was so ready to do something to him, something stupid, something angry, something—something—

My hands came up to grab him by the collar and pull him down forcefully and I kissed him.

I kissed that bastard _hard_.


	8. In Which Shit Gets Real

Handsome Jack's lips felt cold.

At one point I had to wonder whether I was kissing _him_ or just some mouth-shaped slab of metal. To which I reminded myself that that was basically what Jack was.

It was a frenzy. Following my rather forceful uptake on kissing the CEO of Hyperion out of rage and arousal, Jack lent his own hand in assisting me with doing so. It was—unexpected, to say the least.

No, I expected to be pushed away, to be rejected immediately and thrown out of the airlock for my petulance and recklessness. But instead, however, I got the full force of the heterochromatic's conviction. He leaned his own weight on the matter, twirling us around and pushing me to sit onto his desk, his own lips working mine into a frenzy of saliva and tongue. He was just as aroused as I, and though I expected that's all he ever was _ever_ , it was in this point that it mattered so much as he pulled my legs over his hips, encouraging me to wrap them around his waist.

I did no more than comply, my boots hitting each other behind his back. Already there was that famous firm pressure of his, pressing against my inner thigh. I moaned into the older man's cool lips, threading my fingers into his soft, chestnut hair and making a mess of it. His hands were so hot, squeezing my hips and sliding up my waist to skim over my breasts. A gentle hum escaped his own lips, vibrating through his throat as those course hands gently groped my chest, his thumb finding my center kneading down on it through the fabric of my shirt. I arched my back into his touch, grazing my teeth over his bottom lip in a momentary pull from our connection. Immediately Jack pushed his face forward as if he just couldn't stand a second from me, crushing his lips to mine to continue the assault.

We were spiraling into something so wrong and profound and _good._ It worked into my mind like a fire, burning my thoughts and melting my emotions into a puddle of mush that pooled into my stomach. It had been so long— _too_ freakin' long—since I partook in something so deliciously scandalous that I was practically a starved animal. Ravenous even, devouring Jack's lips, raking my human and cybernetic fingers through his hair, rolling my hips into the firmness between his thighs as one thing replayed in my head over and over:

 _I_ _need_ _it._

It wasn't long before Jack got bored of the desk. Reaching his hands down he held me by my backside, swinging me off the cool metal and carrying me across the room to where he practically slammed me into the glass that overlooked the outside. It cooled my body, the cold seeping into and spreading across my back. Jack's lips left mine, gently pulling my hair to tilt my head to the side as they trailed down my jawline and nibbled at my throat. His teeth grazed my skin, trailing down my collarbone and chest with little bites that elicited small moans from me. His hands kneaded my breasts, his mouth nipping at the flesh that peeked out from the top of my shirt.

At the lower flush of our bodies his hips moved into mine, a hardness pressing clear through his pants. I worked my own torso to match his, expertly rolling myself into his thrusts to draw a long, frustrated groan from deep within his throat. He sounded like he was done with all the foreplay, and as I momentarily regained the slightest conscience from my lust-addled mind, Jack's hands quickly made do with my shirt, pulling it down so quickly I had to gasp. He dove immediately into my exposed breasts, pushing back my undergarments, fingers squeezing around the edges as his lips encased the pebbled center of my nipple. My back arched involuntarily, my head lifted towards the ceiling as an abrupt moan escaped my open mouth, a sudden pleasure coursing through me with the rough suckling he began on one breast while the other was gently pinched between his fingers.

It was so sinfully good that I almost forgot I had stopped moving. I forced myself to rock my hips again, my fingers clutching so hard to his long hair I was afraid I may have been hurting him. If I was, he showed no signs of it, only continuing to wreak havoc on my nerves with his hands and mouth and just—god it was good.

Maybe even too good.

As I was falling deeply into the crevice of lust, something just felt wrong. It wasn't the type of wrong that had been bothering me since the first day that I had met Jack, that ache in my stomach that told the weirdness of having a thing for my boss, no, this was something different. Something new.

The said boss was going to town on my body, hips thrusting, mouth sucking, hands groping. It was almost too much for me to think clearly, to form coherent thoughts, but as I was able to think back on our exchange, something odd stood out to me. He was being so strange, almost like he wasn't himself. The way he was taking care of me in that moment just didn't seem like something he would do.

I thought about earlier, how he was confusing me so much with the way he was acting. The way he talked, the things he said, using my full name instead of that damned nickname he made for me—why was he being so strange? I couldn't keep my mind off of it, the question overtaking me and growing bigger than the pleasure he was giving me. Before long a single thought formed into my head that I could not get away from, no matter what justification I tried to put forth:

This wasn't Handsome Jack.

My hands stilled their frenzy in his hair, and they slid down his neck to his chest. "Jack, wait…" I said, almost not finding my voice as I pushed him away, feeling the cold fall into the air around my breasts. The man who looked like Jack slowly leaned away, his chest heaving for breath looking down on my smaller form, looking confused. I had stilled my hips, and he did too, and though I desperately wanted to continue our path, I had to confirm something.

"I just have to know something…" I stated a little breathlessly, looking up at him with clouded eyes.

"Anything." He said back, how own eyes half-lidded with pleasure and that easy compliance alone was helping me figure it out.

He looked so desperate to return to our activities that I almost threw my whole query away, but I just had to do this." The first day we met, here in your office, what was it about me that surprised you the most?"

He furrowed his brows. "What..? Why would that matter?" He asked, looking thoroughly confused, leaning back in for a kiss.

I drew my lip into my teeth as I had to push him away again. "Because it just does. Tell me Jack."

He looked so lost, so utterly lost that I could feel my heart sinking. Slowly I pushed myself off him, sliding to my feet and pulling my shirt and undergarments back over my breasts. He just kind of stood there, unsure of what to do, seeming so damn confused. "I—I just…"

I just needed him to say it. Just one small string of words and I would be back in his arms and we would work our bodies into oblivion. This whole thing was so confusing and goddamn frustrating to me. He would know it, I was looking right at Jack, he should freaking know it. So why wasn't he saying it?

"Just one thing Jack, that's all I want you to tell me: what was it about me that you didn't expect."

"That you were a girl."

It was his voice, but it didn't come out of his mouth. Jack and I furrowed our brows, and we swiveled our heads to look at—

—Jack?

Handsome Jack stood at the door to his office, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a mug with something steaming inside. My eyes widened. What the fuck? I looked at Jack, then I looked at Jack. I was staring at two Jacks, two exactly identical fucking Jacks.

"Wha— wha—"I wasn't able to form any words, my finger swiveling back and forth between them in confused accusation.

The Jack at the door barked a laugh, throwing his head back as he did. "Tim, you old dog! I didn't think you had it in you!"

I looked to the Jack in front of me, my eyes wide, my jaw slacked in disbelief. He returned the gaze, his face flushing with embarrassment, and back away slowly, clearing his throat.

"How long were you standing there?" The one dubbed Tim asked, looking to his twin at the door.

He shrugged with a grin, taking a sip from his mug. "Long enough to feel bad that I missed it!" He threw his head back in laughter again, and I started to feel an increasing sense of shame. "But wow! The one time I put you in charge and things get exciting, damn it Tim!"

He didn't sound the least bit angry about it, but I could feel it starting to boil deep in the bit of my stomach. Anger and embarrassment and shame and—loss.

I looked at the twin in front of me. "Tim..?"

He cleared his throat again, bringing his clenched fist to his mouth before letting it forward to offer a handshake. "Timothy. Timothy Lawrence. Jack's, uh—"

"Timmy-boy, he's my body double!"

Jack had suddenly appeared in front of us, throwing his free arm around the other man's shoulder enthusiastically as if he were a brother. I stared at the two towering men, still unsure what to say. Jack's lips curled into a devilish grin.

"But damn Ellie, that was some unexpected stuff you pulled back there! Honestly I feel a little left out. Where's _my_ horny make out?"

While Jack had been musing about the things I did with his double, I had backed into the glass window behind me, a swirl of emotions coursing through me, making my head swim. My skin was red with disgrace and embarrassment, and I could only imagine the amount of despair that was present in my eyes. Timothy seemed the only one to notice it, averting his gaze in humiliation and remorse. I could feel a sting of tears in the corner of my eyes, but couldn't quite understand why that was the emotion that reared its ugly face.

"Hey, cupcake, you doing all right there?" Jack's amused voice said, pulling me away from my thoughts.

I looked up at him, then at Timothy, unsure of what to do. Then I took off, barreling through the both of them. I rushed out of the office, stormed past Venus and slammed myself into the elevator, smashing the button that would help me leave this god-awful place. I went directly home, no given damn at what time of day it was or if I had to do any work, I just had to go home.

This whole thing was a mess. _I_ was a mess. It was all so goddamn stupid. There I was, ready to fuck my boss into Kingdome come when it turned out I was about to make that mistake on his body double, some jackhole named Timothy Lawrence who did nothing to stop me or tell me what I was doing or to whom I was even doing it to. Even if I was with Jack, something told me there was a strong possibility that I would have realized my actions and stopped myself before things got worse, but it had to turn out to not to actually be him! I had to suffer the near-mistake of doing it with my boss, as well as finding out that it wasn't actually my boss I was making the mistake on!

I was absolutely mortified, absolutely humiliated. This whole damn thing was just so fucking messed up.

When I came home, angry and tired and just done with everything, I tore through my apartment. In my history of the Pandoran survivor, I had a temper that raged a wrath from the gods. Since settling down with Hyperion, I was able to tame that rage as I reintroduced myself to civilization. It was hard to keep it suppressed, every little thing making me want to take a fire gun and just fucking burn everything to the ground, but I was able to endure, to hold back and let it simmer and cool.

Earlier that day I showed a little of what my temper could do, but when I came home, all that I had worked for to keep it down was gone. There were no barriers, just me, my rage, and my limbs set to absolutely destroy everything I owned. I was so fucking humiliated it was the only thing I knew to make myself feel better.

My comm had been going off nonstop. It was Devon, and Venus, and Marlow, and even Jack at one point. They were all calling to ask me what had happened, but I answered no one. Devon, Marlow and Venus had all seen my storm out of the office, saying no word to them, only barreling through the people until I was fucking out of there. Why Jack had decided to call me was beyond _my_ comprehension, so even when something told me to answer the call, I flung the damn thing across my living room with my new metal arm and watched it shatter against the wall.

That night I lie curled up on my near-shredded couch, limp as I analyzed the damage that had been done. It was a wreck. My coffee table was in splinters, my chairs in pieces. My lamps and my books and my pillows all torn and shattered and tossed about. It was a good thing that I never owned anything valuable, else I would suffer the consequences of losing something that was dear to me.

Thanks to good old fucking Pandora though, I held no such object close to my heart and only had to deal with the consequences of suffering the bill Hyperion would send me for all the damages.

Hyperion. That was what started all this. I may have been better off here, with a job and a home and friends, but after all this, all I could think about was how I would rather be fighting off Skags instead of goddamn Handsome Jack.

Perhaps I had been overreacting. Perhaps I had pushed it a bit far. I was ready to admit something like that, but I just couldn't deal with my emotions anymore. I was insane and I was goddamn going to act upon it. Screw Jack, and Timothy, and the world, I was going to have a temper tantrum.

And as I lie there, slowly falling into an emotionally and physically exhausted slumber, all I could think about was how I had utterly fucked myself.

When this whole time it was what I wanted to do to Jack.


End file.
